My aircraft concept is to take a single aircraft platform and turn it into as many different roles as needed by our changing combat and survailence priorities.

The aircraft I have chosen as my concept platform is the ARES type 151, designed by Burt Rutan and built by Scaled Composites, it is a low cost ground support aircraft designed for the ARMY and first flew in 1990 but was not put into production.

I would modify this design to lengthen the fusalage so the cockpit would extend to just forward of the forward swept canards, shorten the verticle stabilizer booms on both sides of the engine, and install a more powerfull engine, but the most significant design change I would make would be to make the cockpit totally removeable and modularize it for different fighter/drone needs.

Have just one aircraft with a removeable cockpit and spare modules for different needs, example...after the aircraft lands and the pilot gets out, that same aircraft can be turned around in an hour or less and launched as an armed drone to perform combat missions over enemy territory, and after the plane lands, once again it can be turned around in an hour or less and this time launched as a reconissance drone bristeling with cameras. One of the most dangerous missions for air force pilots is to seek out and destroy enemy serface-to-air missile radar installations, and an armed drone outfitted with an electronic counter measures (ECM) pod, could perform this roll nicely...then, after this plane lands the drone pod could be switched out for a dual seat cockpit and take up the role of trainer.

This would be spending our tax dollars wisely instead of just throwing a ton of money at a project for one role and then decide we need a different aircraft for another role.

My aircraft concept would be like the swiss army knife of aircraft.

Pictures are courtesy of Scaled Composites L.L.C.